BY CHRIS MCKENNA
Times Herald-Record
A deceptive campaign flier intended to tar state Sen. William Larkin Jr. as Kiryas Joel's patron in Albany was mailed to households in his district by one of the Hasidic community's dissident leaders, according to public records.
The mailing purported to be an endorsement of the Republican senator by Kiryas Joel residents, but almost certainly was meant to sour voters by linking him to projects that are deeply unpopular outside the village.
No one has taken credit for the material, but postal records show that the Brooklyn postage permit used to distribute the fliers belongs to a religious entity -- Congregation Baruch Taam -- with the same Kiryas Joel address as dissident leader Bernard Tyrnauer.
Tyrnauer belongs to a political faction that supported Larkin's Democratic challenger, Harley Doles, who lost to Larkin on Tuesday.
"I don't have time, " a man answering the phone at Tyrnauer's home said Thursday before hanging up. Tyrnauer didn't return subsequent messages left at his home and business.
The fliers, some of which endorsed Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt as well, appeared to be earnest statements of support for two Republicans "that have helped and continue to help our great community." Both politicians erroneously got credit for Kiryas Joel's proposed water pipeline and $11.5 million women's health center -- projects that have stirred resentment outside the community.
Members of Kiryas Joel's main congregation blamed the village's opposition party -- the Kiryas Joel Alliance -- for the mailers and fumed that the group was exploiting bad feelings against their own community for political gain. The Alliance endorsed Doles and Rabbitt's Democratic opponent, Myrna Kemnitz.
And yet their own political leaders have used similar tactics to influence past elections, as in 2005, when a slate of Monroe Town Board candidates were labeled "KJ lite" to cost them votes.
Doles has denied any involvement with the deceptive mailers, although he took responsibility for campaign signs making the same mistaken claim that Larkin "built" the $11.5 million women's center.